4Blocks Drives Effective Actions/Fixer-upper
Dental Team Roles and Team Role Mindset Videos
4Blocks Drive Effective Actions/Fixer-Upper
Below the caption for the video we have included the text of the module we include in new hire packets to explain EAs. It references a specific implementation of EAs using Growth Card, which can be deployed in an app version as well as using a pen-and-paper. The module we use has voiceover and graphics, but we have included the text to help you see how to explain Effective Actions to your team in a way that works.
4Blocks Drive Effective Actions 4Blocks is home base for training. It all spins from there. Mentoring, training, and effective actions. By breaking each role down to four areas of focus, team members can easily get a handle on what is expected from them, and mentors can clearly direct and focus training using this method of organizing all the many tasks and aspects of your particular role. Your 4Blocks are the functions your roles performs for patients as part of the whole-practice team, and effective actions are actions or outcomes to focus on and track with full awareness in order to predictably achieve those outcomes.
Effective Actions ("Fixer-Upper")
A Team-Facing Explanation of Effective Actions
You’re not a fixer-upper.
Like we said in the beginning, we hired you on purpose. We don’t see you as a “fixer-upper.” We don’t train to get you up to snuff. If extraordinary patient care was only about individual team members performing with excellence, we wouldn’t need ongoing training. Your daily practice with patients would take care of that.
But dentistry is a team sport. We are each certified or professionally prepared to handle a particular share of the work. The Growth Platform emphasizes the positive aspects of the team approach–that each patient gets to have multiple warm, enjoyable interactions with people who evidently care about them–and nurtures the needs of a collaborative team with planning, purposefulness, and commitment to support.
We only hire people who know how to connect and communicate well. So it’s only one more step to make sure that communication flows through the team in all directions. Effective Actions (EAs) tracked through the Growth Card (GC) are how we do that.
Synchronized Swimming
So it’s not a matter of each role needing to be drilled to a state of readiness, it’s about coping with the realities of a diverse group effort. The complex, multi-person, multi-specialty nature of the patient visit requires us to be well-coordinated.
So what we call “training” here involves making the practice an environment where the whole team is able to work together to care for patients, and call out for help and support when it’s needed. “Training” isn’t the best word for this, but that’s what it’s called. We take care of each other by providing a structure for communication and support that allows us to be intentional and focused on collaborating with our teammates to take outstanding care of our patients.
Coordination is the challenge. Clear, accurate communication across the whole practice is the solution.
To be successful and confident in their pursuit of excellent patient care, each team member must be able to tell each other when they aren’t able to do what they need to do, determine why that is, and come to a conclusion about how best to improve the situation. EAs and Growth Card make this fast, easy, and ongoing.
Eyes left, eyes right
The Growth Platform started with a basic image in mind: prehistoric humans trying to solve a challenge and drawing their plan in the dirt with a stick. As ever, a shared image or model of the challenge at hand allows us to proceed with the confidence that everyone understands each other and knows what to do. This is the essence of using communication to collaborate, and it’s what we’re doing with GC, and with Effective Actions (EAs) in particular: we’re working together to assemble, share, and discuss a shared “big picture” that we all understand our role in.
Moving Parts
Effective Actions are outcomes we track to see how the group is working together. EAs are chosen for clarity. Each EA represents many smaller, subordinate steps. For instance, EA: “Patient left on time” requires many things, from making sure each team member involved is prepared for their day, to using efficiencies for treatment, and so on.
Tracking these single actions lets us know many things about how we are able to execute the collaborative care process–and where adjustments must be made. Measuring our results allows us to adapt our approach to accomplishing the outcomes that lead to happy patients.
EA Tracking: A breadcrumb trail
We need both positive and negative reporting. By tracking how often you’re able to make these EAs happen, we can see how often you’re able to do what you need to. By comparing the results of EA efforts to the back-office numbers and patient feedback, those swipes help us understand and put into numbers just what it takes to make patients happy.
But explaining why you couldn’t swipe is just as important. Taking a second to look back, analyze the situation and share your thoughts is how you do your part to make sure we never get far from where we need to be.
Example EA: Front Desk
A real-world example: The Front Desk has EA: Answer the phone before the third ring. If the entire Front Desk team reports being too maxed out to make this EA happen consistently, it may mean we’re growing, and it’s time to bring another Front Desk person on board. This good news wouldn’t have been discovered unless negative EA reporting uncovered it.
Negative reporting helps us take care of invisible or insidious problems: Had we not uncovered this through the focus of the EA, eventually we would have lost patients for making them wait too long, all because the Front Desk wasn’t able to gather and share information to communicate their situation to the rest of the practice.
EAs Are Questions and EAs are Answers
Sometimes EAs are assigned when the practice needs to learn more about something, and sometimes EAs are assigned to help focus departments, teams, or individuals on outcomes that will help the practice adjust to the needs of patients. We have the tools to share information instantly, and in an organized way that helps us make clear decisions without delay. This makes us–the whole practice and each of us individually–responsive to patients with unprecedented speed.
This is what EAs and GC are all about, and this is why they are the focus of our efforts to continually work on improving our team approach. So swipe when you can do your EA, and sing like a canary when you can’t. You’re helping the whole team run smoothly when you do.